Wireless communication systems facilitate connectivity and data and voice transport from point-to-point and point-to-multipoint bases. Exemplary wireless communication systems include “Bluetooth™ protocol” enabled systems that facilitate the transport of data between Bluetooth enabled devices such as wireless headsets, cellular phones, laptop computers and personal digital assistants (PDAs), and “IEEE 802 protocol” systems that facilitate the transport of data over wireless local area networks (WLANs), which include devices such as desktop and laptop computers.
As is well known, Bluetooth is a global specification standard for radio communications operating in the unlicensed Industrial, Scientific, and Medical (ISM) band at 2.4 GHz. Bluetooth enabled devices, which are devices that comply with the Bluetooth Specification, replace normal cable connections with short-range radio links. Bluetooth offers a secure, robust, low-complexity, low cost and low power cable-less connection solution. Bluetooth technology is featured in a wide range of applications including cordless telephony, intercom, facsimile (FAX) and Local Area Network (LAN) access, and dial-up networking applications, high-fidelity sound reproduction, digital imaging. Bluetooth wireless communication protocols are implemented in wireless headsets, cellular phones, PDAs, printers, and many other devices. Bluetooth technology is described in more detail in a number of specifications, the latest of which, published by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG), entitled “Bluetooth Core Specification Version 4.1”, published on Dec. 3, 2013, is electronically available to the public via the well-known Internet at <http://www.Bluetooth.org>, the most common specification of which, entitled “Bluetooth Core Specification Version 4.0”, published on Jun. 30, 2010 and subsequently updated and integrated with addenda on Dec. 27, 2011, Jul. 24, 2012, Feb. 12, 2013 and Dec. 3, 2013, is also published by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG), and is electronically available to the public from the same source, and together with its Supplement, referred to herein as the “Bluetooth Specification,” and is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety for its teachings on Bluetooth flow control, signals, devices and communication protocols and schemes. Current solutions for device-to-device communication include, for example, those disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 8,457,552 B1 issued Jun. 4, 2013, for Method and Apparatus for Reduced Complexity Short Range Wireless Communication System by Linksy et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 8,432,262B2 issued Apr. 30, 2013, for Multiple Near Field Communication Tags in a Pairing Domain to Talty, et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 8,385,823 B2 issued Feb. 26, 2013, for Method and System for Communication in Near Field Communication Network to Naniyat; U.S. Pat. No. 8,380,977 B2 issued Feb. 19, 2013, for Peer-to-Peer Communication Method for Near Field Communication to Son, et al.; and U.S. Pat. No. 8,285,211 B2 issued Oct. 9, 2012, for Method and System for Improving Client Server Transmission Over Fading Channel with Wireless Location and Authentication Technology via Electromagnetic Radiation to Wang, et al. One important approach to classify wireless communication protocols is based on the ability to provide secure, or encrypted communications. In this respect, for example the Bluetooth communication protocols differentiates itself from other standards, like the NFC standard, which favors ease of use at the cost of eliminating the ability to provide secure communications. Near field communication (NFC) is a set of standards for smartphones and similar devices to establish low-bandwidth radio communication with each other by touching them together or bringing them into close proximity, usually no more than a few centimeters. NFC provides short-range wireless connectivity via electromagnetic (EM) radiation that uses magnetic field induction to enable communication between devices. Present and anticipated applications include contactless transactions, data exchange, and simplified setup of more complex communications such as Wi-Fi. Communication is also possible between an NFC device and an unpowered NFC chip, called a NFC tag. NFC standards cover communications protocols and data exchange formats, and are based on existing radio-frequency identification (RFID) standards including ISO/IEC 14443 and FeliCa. The standards include ISO/IEC 18092 and those defined by the NFC Forum.
For secure applications, in order to establish and authenticate a secure communication between two devices with standard pairing functionality, a user has to set a PIN number that allows two Bluetooth devices to agree on an encryption key. If the PIN number matches between the two devices, the encryption key is then sent from the device that wants to pair to the device that will accept the pairing. In order for the pairing to be established the user has to perform several steps to enter the identifying PIN number. This process is laborious and can be a deterrent to adoption of technology. With the introduction of low-energy radio communication protocols, aimed at the proliferation of connected devices (also known as “the internet of things”), the simplification of the process to authenticate secure communications across two or more devices is of paramount importance. Further, the encryption key is made visible during the process, which can lead to security breaches, and puts visually impaired users at a disadvantage. A variety of devices have been developed which enable communication based on proximity. However, none of the currently available solutions solves the problems addressed herein while providing the benefit of secure communication for sensitive information and data.
Alternative approaches combine the use of two radio communication protocols in order to achieve security and convenience. For example, the two devices that need to be paired are equipped with both Bluetooth radio and NFC radio: when pairing needs to be established, the two devices are moved in close proximity and the NFC radio allows to have an exchange of encryption keys. Such encryption keys can then be used to authenticate and secure communications between the two devices with Bluetooth radio protocol. This alternative approach offers a convenient method for establishing secure communications, but introduces unnecessary complexity in the design of both the hardware and software of the devices that adopt it as it requires two radios, and is a potential source of incompatibilities, limiting the interoperability across different devices.
What is needed are methods and systems for pairing devices that will be wirelessly and securely connected which is convenient, efficient, simple and economical.
In other words, the current state of the art is as follows: 1) communication methods that do not support secure (encrypted) communications and are only suitable for applications that do not require security. These do not require authentication and typically easy to setup or require no setup. 2) communication methods that do not support, or have limited support for security but mitigate security risk and are hence suitable for only certain applications that require security, these include proximity-based communications protocols, like NFC, which mitigate the security risk by use of very-low-power radios that limit the risk of detection by a third party and are typically easy to setup or require no setup. 3) Communication methods that support security and are hence suitable for a wide range of secure or non-secure communications, but require lengthy and/or inconvenient configuration processes, like exchange of passwords or PIN codes. These include certain Wi-Fi communication methods and Bluetooth. 4) Communications methods that combine 2) and 3) above as they leverage proximity-based exchange of authentication tokens, for example via NFC to then enable encryption key exchange and secure communication typically over Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. This last approach is costly and inefficient as it required the implementation of two different radios in the devices and one of the two radios is only used during the setup (or configuration) stage.